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ALTERNATIVEFUEL NEws
Electric cars will get more popular says Shell CEO
Royal Dutch Shell Plc expects electricitypowered
vehicles to account for as much as
40 percent of the worldwide car market by
2050, Chief Executive Peter Voser said. Voser,
speaking at the ECO:nomics conference in
Santa Barbara, said technological improvements
and increases in the cost of producing
gasoline will give a boost to vehicles that run
on alternative power. “We think between now
and 2050, we will go from 1 billion cars to 2
billion cars worldwide”, he said. “We think by
2050, roughly 40 percent of those 2 billion
cars will be electric.” In the next 40 years, the
market needs low-carbon fuels, more efficient
engines and hybrid vehicles, Voser said. “I think
there will be room and space to develop all of
them”, he added. Gasoline demand in developed
countries like the United States has started to
decline, partly as vehicles running on alternative
fuels have entered the market. Companies such
as Shell and BP are spending more money on
those newer technologies, including for nextgeneration
biofuels. automakers such as Ford
Natural Gas: An economic and environmental
solution to meeting growing energy demand
The development of natural gas resources from
around the world will play an important role
in the future global economy, Tom Walters,
president of ExxonMobil Gas & Power Marketing
Company, said last month at a plenary
session during the CERaWeek 2010 conference
in Houston, Texas: “We expect global energy
demand to increase nearly 30 percent in the
next 20 years. By 2030, global gas demand
will be around 140 billion cubic feet per day
higher than 2009.” Walters joined a group
of industry leaders to address a global gas
plenary on “The Role of Natural Gas in the
Future Energy Mix.” He noted that despite the
TouchStar, OrTEC and Silicon Controls
TouchStar Technologies announce the formation
of their co-operation with ORTEC,
global leader in advanced resource planning,
and leading global telemetry experts Silicon
Controls. The three companies collaborate to
deliver SHV Gas’s Digital logistics Initiative.
SHV’s objectives are clear: it aims to reduce
distribution costs by 10 percent. SHV Gas,
which operates in 27 countries worldwide,
Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co ltd are racing
to launch electric cars, betting these will be the
environmentally friendly transportation of the
future. Small players like Tesla Motors already
sell electric vehicles. Voser said Shell was investing
25 percent of its research and development
budget into renewables, including wind power
and biofuels. Shell has bet big on ethanol by
striking a deal with Brazil’s Cosan to create
a US $ 21 billion a year ethanol joint venture.
The 50 – 50 joint venture, with almost 4 500
filling stations nationwide, will better position
Cosan and Shell to compete with the two top
players in the market, state oil giant Petrobras
and Ipiranga, a unit of Brazil’s Grupo Ultra.
effects of the recent economic downturn, the
long-term outlook for natural gas is positive.
The major driver of this demand is power generation,
which will account for more than half
of the gas demand growth, Walters said. He
also emphasized the environmental benefits
of natural gas as a source of power generation.
“Natural gas is a cleaner burning source of
fuel and power generation that over the next
20 years will continue to form an increasingly
important role in the global energy mix. This
can be attributed to its advantages of lower
carbon emissions and greater flexibility into
power generation.”
distributes its products mainly to domestic and
small businesses customers. From around 100
warehouses across Europe, 2 000 trucks deliver
lPG , both in bulk and contained in bottles.
The solution will integrate TouchStar’s rugged
TouchPC based On-Board Truck technology
with ORTEC’s Vehicle Routing and Dispatch
software and Silicon Controls remote tank
monitoring system “Gaslog”.
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NEwS
Gas buses for the city of
Almaty in Kazakhstan
The first 200 gas buses will be working in
almaty this year. Vice akim of almaty, Erbol
Shormanov, informed at a briefing, an agency
reported “We plan that this year the first socalled
municipal gas buses, about 200 units,
will start to function in almaty”, Shormanov
informed. He also said that several gas-filling
stations will be constructed in the city. The
akimat has reached an arrangement with
KazTransGas companies.
An oil company finally
opts to go green
It’s not a major company like BP, Exxon, or
Shell, although it’s about 40 percent owned
by the last. But Showa Shell Sekiyu, a refiner
in Japan, may still count as the first example
of an oil company staking its future, not just
a tiny percentage of profits, on renewable
energy. Showa is looking to invest about
$1.1 billion, more than two years’ profits, in
a solar cell factory in southern Japan, boosting
its output tenfold to 900 megawatts.
The investment would probably cost more,
but the plant is one acquired from Hitachi,
allowing Showa to re-use some technology.
The plant will make low-efficiency thin-film
solar panels, so Reuters is billing the move
as competition for First Solar. Showa may
indeed be on competing in price, but it looks
like the company actually wants to find its
own markets.
SPAr AUSTrIA launches
charging stations for
electric bikes
SPaR (austria) will set up free charging
stations for e-bikes at 26 INTERSPaR and
EUROSPaR outlets in the Styria region
before summer 2010. INTERSPaR and
Hervis have offered e-bikes in their ranges
since 2009. If the pilot project turns out to
be successful, the charging stations may be
rolled out to around 150 further stores in
Styria and to SPaR outlets in other regions
of the country as well.
SPaR (austria) is also sponsoring its employees
with 100 euros (US $146) each when they
decide to buy an e-bike.